Thursday, 19 September 2013

Happy Thursday Peeps ! Got any crafting plans on your agenda today ? If so, why not create an entry for our new challenge starting today over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog. This week's theme is 'Fairy Nice' and I'm sure most of us have at least one fairy image in our stash - right ? Whimsy Stamps are sponsoring our prize this week.

I'm continuing on my quest to use stamps that I've had in my stash for some time (on a bit of an economy drive and trying sooooo hard not to buy many of the fabby new stamps which seem to pop up everywhere and scream 'buy me' !)

For my DT card I chose this really cute fairy stamp from Kanban which I've had in my stash for a few years. I coloured her with ProMarkers and added Stardust Stickles on her wand, starry tiara and wings to give her lots of 'Fairy Dust' sparkle. The layer behind the image was diecut using a Spellbinders square die with filigree corners and the sentiment tag was cut using a Marianne's die.

Background papers were from my box of bits and are glittered for even more sparkle. The pretty crocheted flowers have been in my stash for ages and I tied a length of cream lace into a bow and added as the finishing touch to the design.

I wonder if her little frog friend does turn into a handsome Prince ? No telling what miracles a touch of Fairy Dust can achieve ! Ha Ha !

Hope you've enjoyed today's project, thanks for visiting and wishing you a day filled with 'Fairy Dust' and Happiness.

Saturday, 14 September 2013

Today is my Grandson Harry's sixteenth birthday and the project I'm sharing with you today is the card I made for him.

I have been doing a little tidying and sorting in my craftroom lately and came across some very nice papers which were freebies in a magazine, so thought I use up some of them to clear a little space. I always find it harder to make cards for men and it's even more difficult for teenage boys I think.

I decided to use some of the nice papers and a matching topper in the design for my card. The funky arrows are from a set of digi images from U Printables by Rebecca B - it's well worth a visit to her blog to check out the freebie images, all she asks is that users don't share the actual images but direct everyone to her site to download for themselves. Click the link here to check them out for yourself.

The blue star was cut using a set of Spellbinders dies and the number cut using a set of dies from Memory Box.

I do hope Harry has a fabulous day today - Congratulations Birthday Boy !

Thursday, 12 September 2013

Welcome to Thursday at Stamping Grandma, today we have a new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog. This week the challenge theme is 'Hip To Be Square' and our prize is sponsored by Whiff of Joy Stamps.

This week's theme could be interpreted in many different ways, I decided to create a square card and have all my design elements as squares.

There's a great blog called U Printables by Rebecca B which has loads of fabby bright and colourful digi images which are free to download. Many of them are great to use in Smash Books and scrapbook layouts, but lots of them are perfect to use in cardmaking. The images are free for personal use but it is not permitted to sell printed copies or share the link - if you'd like to download any of them for yourself, just visit her blog and follow the download instructions on there. Have Fun !

I printed off the sheet of retro style flowers and hearts and selected eight of them to cut out and include in my design. After attaching them to the base card, I then used a Happy Birthday stamp and ink from SU! to create a square for the centre, which I diecut using a nestie. I added the centre square on foam pads to raise it up a little above the other squares.

That's it, just a simple design but cheerful and colourful enough to bring a smile to whoever receives it I think. My preferred method of creating cards is always to use rubber stamps and colour the images. However occasionally crafting time is in very short supply and it's great to be able to pull together a design quickly, good quality printed elements/embellishments come in very useful at these times.

I do hope you've enjoyed seeing today's project and perhaps it may tempt you into entering the CCT challenge this week? I would encourage you to go check out the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT on the CCT blog and see how everyone has interpreted this week's theme.

Have a wonderful and creative day, and I hope to see you again very soon.

Wednesday, 11 September 2013

Welcome to Wednesday here on my little bit of Blogland, hope you're having a great day.

My Lil' Bruv isn't having too great a time of it right now and as I live quite far away from him, I wanted to make him a quilt so he could have a 'virtual' Big Sis hug when he needed one. I had lots of 'jelly roll' size strips of brightly coloured fabrics in my stash, which I thought would make a smashing bright and colourful quilt.

I did share a sneak peek a few days ago as I didn't want to spoil the surprise, but now that I've given him the quilt I thought I'd share a full pic of it with you.

I think this should brighten up even the darkest day, don't you ? My fabric stash is also a little smaller too, which is another great result.

Monday, 9 September 2013

Happy Monday Folks, just a quick posting from me today, right now I'm busy, busy, busy ! The weather is gorgeous today, quite breezy but lovely and sunny with clear blue skies - mind you that is in my part of Cornwall, not sure about the rest of the country.

Thought I'd share a pic of a quilt I made recently for a lovely pal, I know she likes pink and the Cath Kidston style of fabrics, so gathered together a few fat quarters (FQ) in various shades of pink and mixed designs.

As you can see it is VERY pink ! I took the shot outdoors in the sunshine, which wasn't easy as it was also quite windy and each time I lined up the shot a gust of wind would blow the quilt around ! Still, managed to get a pic eventually - you can see my trusty 'quilt guardian' standing in the bottom lefthand corner... Bless ! Once again I backed this quilt with cuddly fleece for maximum 'snugglisciousness'.

That's it from me today, I've been busy making cards, lots of birthdays etc coming up and luckily Mr Mojo has returned - for a while at least.

Thursday, 5 September 2013

For my DT card this week I've gone a bit 'shabby chic' and distressed. I firstly stamped images from a set of JOFY for PaperArtsy stamps onto a piece of calico fabric using Archival Ink in black. I 'set' the ink by ironing the fabric then colouring the fabric using Distress Inks - I used Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry - applied with a piece of 'cut and dry'.

I ironed the fabric again before stitching it on to a piece of craft coloured card which I'd previously torn roughly to shape and distress with the Picked Raspberry ink. The background paper was distressed around the edges and more DI applied.

The scraps of lace and lacy braid were first glued on before I used some pretty coloured staples to reinforce the attachment. The flower was created by punching out a few scalloped circles using a SU! punch, which I then passed through a paper 'ribbler' loads of times - this breaks up the fibres of the paper creating a lovely soft finish. The circles were then stacked up and a brad pushed through the centre before scrunching and 'squidging' the layers to form them into a flower. Finally I added a few scraps of twine then attached the flower over the top.

Hope you've enjoyed today's project, let me know what you think and, if you have time, hop over to the CCT blog to check out the rest of the DT projects.

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Happy Wednesday folks, apologies for being so late in the day with my post today - I have been very busy trying hard to clear up and clear out in my craftroom....... well, I needed to make enough space for me to actually work in !

My project today is a small tag card (4" x 4") I created to go with a gift sent to a friend. I'm also entering it for this week's Less is More Challenge, which asks us to use a rubber stamp and watercolour.

So..... here it is :

I used one of my lovely JOFY for Paperartsy stamps, I just love these images. I stamped the image onto the base card using 'Gathered Twiggs' Distress Ink. I then used Picked Raspberry and Bundled Sage Distress Inks with a waterbrush to colour the image - not too precisely, just a suggestion of shape and not staying within the lines of the stamped image.

Here's hoping that the recipient liked both the card and the gift !

We have a wonderfully warm and sunny day here again today in my part of Cornwall, but according to the weather forecast it's going to change for the worse from tomorrow, heavy rain by the end of the week - humph !

Tomorrow I'll be sharing my project for the new Cute Card Thursday Challenge for this week, I hope you'll pop back to check it out.

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

As I promised in yesterday's post, I have a card to share with you today. I haven't yet put away my bag of older Sugar Nellie stamps and I've used another of them for today's project.

This cute stamp is called 'A hug for Fifi' and I coloured the image with my ProMarkers before fussy cutting out and adhering to the background. I found the pretty swirly background paper in my box of paper scraps and the colours on it were perfect for the design. I used a Penny Black daisy die and a scrap of SU! Peach Parfait cardstock to create the background on the left hand side.

The hug coupon stamp is by Studio G and I stamped it using SU! Baja Breeze ink, stamped onto Baja Breeze cardstock three times before cutting out.

Monday, 2 September 2013

Happy Monday Peeps ! Today the weather here in my part of Cornwall is absolutely glorious - clear blue skies, warm sunshine and a gentle breeze to bring a touch of freshness to the air ahhhhh......

Over the weekend hubs and I harvested most of our apple crop, considering we have only a small urban garden, our fruit trees have done really well this year. Here's a pic of the first harvest of apples (the pears don't look so good this year, lots of them but the skins are blemished and the fruit is smaller than normal).

We're going to try and keep some of the fruit, wrapped and stored in cardboard, rather than cook most of them, as I've done in previous years. They are eating apples (Pink Lady and Golden Delicious) but they cook down nicely and I don't need to add any extra sugar. After cooking I freeze them in pudding sized amounts so they're ready to defrost and use in a yummy crumble or Eve's Pudding... slurp ! Of course they are delish just eaten fresh from the tree too.

As you can see from this next pic, there are still a number of apples left on the tree which we'll be picking probably today or tomorrow.

﻿

I thought you might like a sneaky peek at my latest two quilting projects too - can't share full pix yet as I haven't given them to the people they have been made for and don't want to spoil the surprise as neither of them know there's a quilt coming their way. Two very different projects and both were a joy to create. I can't wait to give them away now they're finished !

My regular visitors will know that Mr Mojo hasn't been around these here parts much lately, however, he did pay a flying visit over the weekend. I managed to finish two whole cards - how about that ? I'll share the other one with you tomorrow, but for now here's the one I've called 'Mirror Image'

I was playing around with a new-ish die from Marianne's Designs which I have in my stash and hadn't used yet. I decided to cut it out from some Peach Parfait SU! cardstock and once I'd cut it out I loved the negative image too so put this over a scrap of Early Espresso SU! cardstock, then placed the diecut on the opposite side to give a mirror image. Finishing it off with a length of dark brown grosgrain ribbon I found in my stash, tied in a simple knot.

What do you think ? Did it work ? I left off any kind of sentiment as I think this would work for many occasions and I can add a sentiment inside as necessary. Not too flowery for a guy's card either I don't think.

Well, that's it from me for today, my crafting pal Jacqueline is coming round to play this afternoon and I have just-baked cookies cooling in the kitchen for us to munch on over a cuppa. Not sure exactly which of my current favourite crafts I'll be indulging in this afternoon, will it be more cards ? a little knitting ? quilting (I have another cushion partly finished ? or some hand sewing.... hmmmm... now let me see.....

Bye for now, do call back tomorrow to check out the other card I made over the weekend.﻿

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